Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia

by Thomas Healy

Overview

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
2021 Hooks National Book Award Winner

The fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”

In 1969, with America’s cities in turmoil and racial tensions high, civil rights leader Floyd McKissick announced an audacious plan: he would build a new city in rural North Carolina, open to all but intended primarily to benefit Black people. Named Soul City, the community secured funding from the Nixon administration, planning help from Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and endorsements from the New York Times and the Today show. Before long, the brand-new settlement – built on a former slave plantation – had roads, houses, a health care center, and an industrial plant. By the year 2000, projections said, Soul City would have fifty thousand residents.

But the utopian vision was not to be. The race-baiting Jesse Helms, newly elected as senator from North Carolina, swore to stop government spending on the project. Meanwhile, the liberal Raleigh News&Observer mistakenly claimed fraud and corruption in the construction effort. Battered from the left and the right, Soul City was shut down after just a decade. Today, it is a ghost town – and its industrial plant, erected to promote Black economic freedom, has been converted into a prison.

In a gripping, poignant narrative, acclaimed author Thomas Healy resurrects this forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality. Was it an impossible dream from the beginning? Or a brilliant idea thwarted by prejudice and ignorance? And how might America be different today if Soul City had been allowed to succeed?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627798617
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Thomas Healy is the author of The Great Dissent, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He is a professor at Seton Hall Law School and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Hutchins Center for African&African American Research at Harvard University. A native of North Carolina, he lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.
Thomas Healy is the author of The Great Dissent, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Hugh M. Hefner Free Speech Award. He is a professor of law at Seton Hall Law School, and was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in support of his work on Soul City. A native of North Carolina, he lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue: "Comes the Colored Hour" 1

Part I

1 "Black Boy in a White Land" 23

2 Scrambled Egg 37

3 "Look Out, Whitey!" 49

4 Dreams into Reality 61

Part II

5 Klan Country 81

6 "Integration Blackwards" 94

7 Green Power 115

8 A Fresh Start 134

9 "The Salad Pickers" 154

10 Naming Rights 170

11 "Theory of the Sugar Tit" 189

Part III

12 Black Elephants 205

13 Present at the Creation 218

14 Cream of the Crop 230

15 Blindsided 246

16 The Battle of Soul City 259

Part IV

17 Good Place to Live 275

18 Pride or Prejudice 285

19 Maseratis and Microwaves 301

20 "Sorrow's Kitchen" 318

Epilogue: Mixed Blessings 327

Notes 345

Bibliography 407

Acknowledgments 415

Index 419

Editorial Reviews

11/09/2020

An attempt to build an American city “where Blacks would call the shots” foundered on bureaucracy, economic headwinds, and racial antagonism, according to this wistful and well-documented history. Seton Hall law professor Healy (The Great Dissent) recounts the story of Soul City, a community intended by its founder, civil rights activist Floyd McKissick, as a showcase for Black economic and political empowerment. Construction started in 1972 on 5,000 acres in rural North Carolina, but the project fizzled after losing its loan guarantees from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1979, leaving behind a subdivision, inhabited to this day, and an abandoned factory where prison inmates now make soap. Healy paints Soul City as a mix of idealistic urbanism, muted Black separatism, and transactional politics (McKissick switched parties from Democrat to Republican and endorsed President Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign in order to get federal backing). Healy emphasizes how racial prejudice contributed to Soul City’s demise, but also notes the flaw in McKissick’s strategy of basing the town’s economy on manufacturing in an era of stagflation and deindustrialization. Full of incisive character sketches and thought-provoking insights into the politics of Black empowerment, this is a worthy elegy for what might have been. Photos. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Soul City project was a fascinating one, and Healy does a wonderful job explaining how and why it ultimately failed. The book is meticulously researched, and Healy expertly provides ample context; he paints an excellent, and accurate, picture of America in the 1970s, a country still in denial about the racism that was poisoning the nation to its core. He also manages to craft a deft, readable narrative out of the ups and downs of the project."
--NPR

"One of the greatest least-told stories in American history... Healy does an excellent job recounting the details."
--The New York Times Book Review

"The tale of Soul City stands as a powerful - particular, vivid, and easily grasped - rebuke to narratives that deny the effects of structural racism.... Healy's passionate and humane account restores Soul City to its place in histories of civil rights and urban renewal alike."
--The New Republic

"A must-read... Paints a haunting picture of a broken dream and the loss of what might have been."
--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"In page-turning prose, Healy stitches together government documents, personal letters, and contemporary media coverage to show how Soul City was doomed by both overt and covert racism. The story acutely resonates today.... Healy also provides us with compelling character studies, helping to elevate figures who fought for utopian values of fairness, kindness, love, and liberation.... Soul City is an urgent reminder of how close the past is; how history breathes down the neck of the present moment."
--Global Citizen

"An engaging and sympathetic account of McKissick and his dream."
--Reason

"A lively narrative... What makes the book successful is that Healy threads the needle between presenting a realistic take on a highly quixotic endeavor without making his protagonist out to be some kind of wooly idealist whose dreams foundered on the rocky shoals of realism."
--PopMatters

"A sympathetic, deeply researched, and heartbreaking account."
--New York Journal of Books

"Wistful and well-documented history... Full of incisive character sketches and thought-provoking insights into the politics of Black empowerment, this is a worthy elegy for what might have been."
--Publishers Weekly

"Succeeds admirably... An engrossing and often heartbreaking look at a singular attempt to achieve some measure of racial equality in the US."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An absorbing account of a visionary project... Healy engages with issues of race and segregation and provides insightful analysis of the project's successes and failures."
--Library Journal (starred review)

"A meticulously researched and engagingly written history of Soul City, Floyd McKissick's utopian 1970s vision for a new city providing Black economic empowerment. In tracing its demise, Thomas Healy brilliantly unpacks the attacks on the town by North Carolina's politicians and the press. As well as providing a detailed exploration of the power of institutional racism, Healy also celebrates the courage of the Soul City residents, 'pursuing their dream and refusing to accept falling short as a sign of failure.'"
--Henry Louis Gates Jr., author of Stony the Road and host of Finding Your Roots

"Thomas Healy tells a gripping, revealing, and ultimately tragic story of Black dreams of freedom derailed by false promises of capitalism and conservative white allies. One need not share Floyd McKissick's faith that a Black utopia could be underwritten by corporate power to feel his pain, as the dream of Soul City--and all the hope it represented--unravels before his eyes."
--Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

"For those seeking a better understanding of the racial divide that faces America today, Thomas Healy's Soul City is a must-read. Planned in the late 1960s as a haven for African Americans seeking both political autonomy and a piece of the American dream, the Soul City project became a depressing example of the obstacles that arise to confront progressive change. Sometimes, a largely forgotten story like this one sheds more light on our history than a famous, familiar tale. An elegantly written, razor-sharp account, Soul City should stir the conscience of us all."
--David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bellevue and "Worse Than Slavery"

"Out in the North Carolina countryside sit the decaying remains of the predominantly Black town that civil rights icon Floyd McKissick dreamt of building half a century ago. In his compelling and moving new book, Thomas Healy recovers Soul City's long-lost story of radical imagination, political ambition, and the devastating costs of America's enduring racial regime."
--Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2021

In 1969, civil rights leader Floyd McKissick proposed developing Soul City, in rural Warren County, North Carolina. Unlike other planned communities of its time, Soul City was intended to exemplify Black economic empowerment and reverse the migration of Black people to the North. Healy (The Great Dissent) brings the saga of Soul City to life from its inception to eventual demise. First, Healy provides background on McKissick's life and motivations for building the community. McKissick's vision for Soul City encompassed homes, amenities, infrastructure and businesses, none of which existed on the undeveloped land. Healy chronicles McKissick's struggle to obtain funding, his troubles with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as Jesse Helms, North Carolina's racist senator. Additionally, McKissick argued with the Raleigh News and Observer, which published a series of negative articles on the project. Despite these setbacks, McKissick obtained the support of local community members, and his vision proved attractive to potential tenants. Additionally, Healy engages with issues of race and segregation and provides insightful analysis of the project's successes and failures. Included are occasional photographs of prominent figures involved in the development. VERDICT An absorbing account of a visionary project that will engage readers interested in Southern history.—Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Library Journal

Larry Herron dynamically narrates the true story of Floyd McKissick, a racial equity leader who sought a solution to urban unrest in 1969. McKissick's dream was to create a city for people of all races that featured equality for people of color, particularly in jobs and housing. Herron brings alive those involved in establishing Soul City, a project backed by $14 million in federal loans that was set on 5,000 acres of North Carolina farmland. Herron portrays the people who joined with McKissick, such as architect/politician Harvey Gantt, who sought to design the model community. Listeners also hear the prejudice of Senator Jesse Helms, the frustrating practices of Housing and Urban Development officials, and the bias of local reporting. Especially haunting are Herron’s portrayal of McKissick’s visionary nature, his determination to create a just city, and the heartbreak that results. S.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2021 - AudioFile

Larry Herron dynamically narrates the true story of Floyd McKissick, a racial equity leader who sought a solution to urban unrest in 1969. McKissick's dream was to create a city for people of all races that featured equality for people of color, particularly in jobs and housing. Herron brings alive those involved in establishing Soul City, a project backed by $14 million in federal loans that was set on 5,000 acres of North Carolina farmland. Herron portrays the people who joined with McKissick, such as architect/politician Harvey Gantt, who sought to design the model community. Listeners also hear the prejudice of Senator Jesse Helms, the frustrating practices of Housing and Urban Development officials, and the bias of local reporting. Especially haunting are Herron’s portrayal of McKissick’s visionary nature, his determination to create a just city, and the heartbreak that results. S.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2021 - AudioFile

★ 2020-10-25
An in-depth account of the rise and fall of Soul City, North Carolina, designed to be a new city focused on racial equality.

Healy, a law professor and North Carolina native, provides a comprehensive history of the town, proposed for an area “in the middle of what one roadside billboard boldly proclaimed ‘Klan Country.’ ” Introduced in 1969 by civil rights leader Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), Soul City was meant to be “a new kind of city, one with a stronger sense of community, a deeper regard for the well-being of others, and a more egalitarian distribution of wealth. He also hoped to incorporate the latest innovations in social policy and urban design, boasting that Soul City would be ‘a showpiece of democracy in a sea of hypocrisy.’ ” Throughout this deft historical narrative, the author provides useful context and perspective about the civil rights movement and the lives of the key players in the venture, including McKissick, the government officials who opposed it (one was Jesse Helms, who “had little enthusiasm for the kind of federal programs supporting Soul City, and even less enthusiasm for the project’s goal of racial uplift”), the journalists who reported on it, and the people who lived there. Healy ably delineates the complex process of creating a city from scratch, which involved promotion, fundraising, grueling bureaucracy and political attacks, and attempting to convincing people and businesses to relocate to the proposed city—not to mention the devastating series of articles in the Raleigh News & Observer alleging fraud and corruption on the part of McKissick. Charting this significant but overlooked piece of modern American history, the author’s intent “is not to assign blame. It is to understand the forces that lead to its failure and the lessons it offers for the pursuit of racial equality today.” On that note, the author succeeds admirably.

An engrossing and often heartbreaking look at a singular attempt to achieve some measure of racial equality in the U.S.

Kirkus Reviews